As used herein the term "drogue" is intended to refer to any object capable of being, or intended to be, towed behind a moving vehicle (such as but not limited to an aircraft, boat or automobile) and configured to be resistive to the medium or media (such as but not limited to the atmosphere or the sea or other fluid) in which such object is disposed. One method for rapidly deploying a drogue from a moving craft or vehicle is to allow the deployed drogue to fall freely away from the moving craft while slowing due to the influence of drag. At the point at which the deployment of the towline connecting the moving craft to the drogue is completed, the towline immediately reaccelerates the drogue to the moving craft's speed. The resulting sudden high tension on the towline ("snap tension"), however, usually causes it to break. Consequently, brake systems have been used to slow the deployment gradually rather than stop it suddenly.
Although these brake systems reduce towline breakage, they do have several shortcomings. First, they deploy drogues at a rate substantially lower than that of a drogue freely falling to the correct deployment distance. Second, since such a system requires spinning reels and other associated machinery, it occupies much of the very limited space within the craft. Finally, such machinery makes brake systems particularly costly to build and maintain.